Chemical Variability of Essential Oils from Zanthoxylum leprieurii Guill. et Perr (Rutaceae) According to Plant Organs

Abstract

Zanthoxylum leprieurii belonging to Rutaceae family, is a medicinal and aromatic plants widely used in ethnopharmacology. Like other plants of Rutaceae family such as Citrus sp., the essential oils of this species could be used in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products. Thus, the essential oils of Z. leprieurii from different plant organs (fruit, leaf, stem and root) were investigated by using GC and GC-MS. The volatile composition of Z. leprieurii fruits exhibited relative high amounts of hydrocarbons monoterpenes (90.9%) such as (E)-β-ocimene (50.9%) and a-pinene (30.4%). The chemical composition of fruit oils was compared with volatile fractions of leaves, stems and roots from the same plant station. Germacrene B (9.0%), b-phellandrene (7.6%), caryophyllene oxide (7.2%) and b-caryophyllene (5.3%) were identified as the major constituents of leaves whereas the essential oil composition of the roots dominated by sesquiterpenes (83.3%) such as germacrone (23.5%), germacrene B (19.1%), g-elemene (6.0%), elemenone (4.0%) and b-elemene (2.4%) in the essential oil of the stems, b-Phellandrene (12.7%), germacrene B (5.0%), germacrene D (4.7%) and cis-9-Octadecen-1-ol (4.6%) have been reported as majority compounds.